7 DIY Last Minute Christmas Ideas

1. CAKE PLATTER || MASON JAR CENTERPIECE -  

I have a thing for cake platters (One of my “good bones” decorating accessories) The original post featured mod podge and Epsom salt to make the frosted look.  Last minute look - pour epsom salts, sugar or fake snow into jars, add lighting.

Photo: Remodelandolacasa

2.  USE WHAT YOU HAVE!  - From empty bottles and a bit of ribbon, to food - try shopping your home for last minute decorating inspiration.

Photo: Source

3.  FANCY FOLDED NAPKINS -  Super easy and a creative way to dress up your table.

Photo: Source

 4. Orange Pomander Balls - Old school tradition, heavenly scented and read the backstory on the tradition, it will be a great conversation starter.

Orange and clove pomander. Photo by Wendy Piersall/Wikimedia Commons.

5.  LAST MINUTE APPETIZER - CRANBERRY AND BRIE CROSTINI

The original idea has you making your own cranberry compote , I’d just doctor up store bought - but the idea is just perfect.

Photo: neighborfoodblog

6.  LAST MINUTE GIFT - SPICED NUTS This one I can thank an old friend who made these for me years ago when we lived in San Francisco- we had backyard rosemary year round. I use pecans or walnuts, but feel free to use your nutty favorites, or what is in the pantry!  Perfect for a hostess gift, this tried and true recipe is easy and fail proof.

Photo: William-Sonoma

7 RECYCLED CAN DECOR - Clever idea and great tutorial.   If you don’t want to make it too complicated, just use a black sharpie and one coat of white spray paint.

Photo: lilyardo

Happy Holidays to you and yours! - Julea.

From House to Home – How to Make Your New House Your Own

“Pick one room and make it yours. Go slowly through the house. Be polite, introduce yourself so it can introduce itself to you.”

— Frances Mayer, Under the Tuscan Sun

The keys are yours!  You’ve gone through the process... the searching, deciding, inspection, stress, closing and finally, the elation of buying a new home.  Now, you have to make it your own. Here’s how.

Color -  Paint is the least expensive, easiest way to update a space.  It can individualize a room and put your personal stamp on your home. Pick your color style -  From modern farmhouse neutrals, to Boho bold colors, whatever is in your style files (Pinterest, HOUZZ, tear-sheets), color can showcase it.  And color doesn’t have to be just on the walls - If you want to keep the wall color simple, infuse color with your furniture, art or accessory choices.  Get your craft on by painting a piece of furniture, or recover your dining chairs seats with new fabric.  Try trending wallpaper on a single accent wall or power room. Create a signature look with a statement making front door color. With color, the change is quick, easy and all you.

Color (Photo: Benjamin Moore)

Your Favorite Things -  Home should hold your beautiful art, furniture, passed down family treasures and loved flowers in your garden beds.  Simple daily rituals with favorite things, cozy slippers slipped on at the end of day,  or tossing your keys into that old bowl, will infuse you into the home.  It could be something new that defines your new chapter of home. That perfect comfy sofa you spied, a fresh new style that you’ve wanted to try out, fun new pillows to add a splash to a patio set. By incorporating these favorite things - you’ll become instantly grounded in your new space.

Favorite Things ( Photo: Julea Joseph)

Make Your Bed!  A bed is your personal haven and cocoon.  Dressing your bed makes your home environment feel luxurious.  Even if the bedroom still has boxes, you can sleep well with a beautifully made bed. Make your bed so that every time you see it, you want to jump into it.  I like to mix old with new. New, fresh, very fancy (the best you can afford) sheets, a stylish linen duvet set slipped over your old favorite down comforter and pillows. Pair the bedding with Grandma’s quilt or your favorite throw at the end of the bed and you'll be ready for a great night's sleep. 

Make Your Bed (Photo: Julea Joseph)

Room to Room - This is where you channel Frances Mayer, the character from "Under the Tuscan Sun" - by going room to room to make it yours. Don’t try to tackle the entire home’s decorating and styling needs, instead, try to work on the spaces you spend the most time in first.

Room to Room: (Photo: Julea Joseph)

5 Senses - Nothing says home more than seeing, smelling, hearing, tasting, and feeling your favorites things of home. Put out those family photos, beloved books, play music, light some candles in your favor scent, open your favorite wine and curl up on that fluffy sofa and celebrate home!  

5 Senses: (Photo: Julea Joseph)

6 Best Holiday Accessories if Selling or Dwelling

Welcome to the quintessential kick off of the holiday decorating season. It starts with fall decor and wraps up after the New Year. Homeowners love to deck the halls with everything from pumpkins to mistletoes. Did you know that last year people spent 8.4 billion dollars on Halloween? An all-time record! We love our holidays!

As both a home staging and interior decorating professional, I have a dual struggle having to consult my selling clients to abbreviate their holiday decorating, yet help my dwelling clients become the perfect seasonal celebrator. Over the years I have curated a list of what I call “Good Bone” seasonal decorating accessories. These are multi-tasking accessories that can serve as both decor and entertaining pieces. They can transition from season to entertaining with just a few styling maneuvers, can easily be procured, and most importantly, be changed out with each holiday or season easily.

“Good Bone” accessories are essential for the homeowner who is selling, since the seasonal or holiday display is simplified, creating a light measure of holiday lifestyle. On the other hand, if dwelling, these accessory standards are perfect for the novice holiday decorator, the space saving downsizer, and for those who wholly celebrate the season – a rich added layer of reverie.

Julea’s “Good Bone” accessory list:

#1. Cake Stands.  Any material – glass, ceramic or silver; round or square. A cake stand gives height, lift, and a perfect flat space to create a seasonal vignette.

Photo: Source

#2. Cylinder and footed hurricane vases. Either can be filled in multiple ways from decor to food.  They can be flipped over to act like a cloche. The vases can also create a lift, topped with a platter or plate for either decorating or entertaining.

Photo: Source

#3 Silver Punch Bowls and Trays. Silver adds instant elegance and sparkle.  A bunch bowl is a vessel and can house anything.  A silver tray, with its lifted edges can serve up any contained display.  If the silver pieces are beyond polishing, can be chalk painted or sprayed – repurposed into a second life.

Photo: Source

#4 Tiered Tea Stands. These multilevel plated stands, usually in three levels come in every style and material – from China to tin.  Usually a centerpiece accessory for larger surface, such as an island, buffet or table.

Photo: Source

#5 Cloches. Originally used to keep seedlings warm in gardens, they now have moved indoors. From glass to chicken wire, cloches add an interesting element to any decor because anything under it, becomes more treasured and a curiosity. An old fashion glass cake stand cover can double as a cloche.

Photo: Source

#6  Wood Dough Bowls.  Textural, long and deep – can stand alone on a dining room table, kitchen island, family room cocktail table or fireplace hearth. These bowls be filled with just about anything and make a stunning centerpiece.

Photo: Source

New Year new room re-style - Shake up your space with these post holiday styling ideas

STOP!  Before you start shoving your furniture back into its old spots after you’ve packed away your holiday décor, consider this instead – why not give your space a new perspective by re-styling things? After all isn’t the New Year all about making changes?  And don’t give me the excuse that if you move stuff around what will you do about those carpet divots. Please…

A fresh perspective is a good thing, especially in your home environment.  Here are some things you can do to up-style and reinvent your rooms and home spaces.  

Move What You Have Around:  Start with what you already have.  Take a stroll through your home and inventory the furniture you have from attic to garage.  Could that consignment shop find desk up in the spare room work as a sofa table or would that rug in the dining room look really nice in the living room? After you do some mental inventory, address the room you want to reinvent. Consider flip flopping the sofas, changing the room's focal point to a different wall or changing the entire feel of the space by swapping pieces from other rooms to make it more formal or casual.  If these suggestions are a bit overwhelming to you, try swapping out or repositioning smaller pieces such as accent chairs, tables, rugs and lamps. 

(PHOTO: Source )

Accessory Re-Styling:  Rotate it, archive them or repurpose it!  From tabletops to bookcases to wall art, your accessories can always use a new look. The same family photos in the same frame in the same space aren't even seen anymore.  Your very favorite piece of art hanging in the dining room isn't being celebrated there - move it to a spot so you can view it all the time.  That boring bookcase or China hutch could make your room POP if you rotated and swapped the pieces.  Give a lamp a new look with a new shade, harp or style - by raising it up with a stack of books.

(PHOTO: One Kings Lane)

Furniture Reinvention: Can you reupholster, slipcover, paint it?  If your furniture is good, if you love the lines or it has sentimental value, keep it and improve it.  

(PHOTO: Pinterest)

Paint Color UpGrade:  Once you get your room rearranged, you may want to take the next step and change the paint color as well.  If you have had the same color on your walls for years, a new hue can upgrade your furniture, accessories and art.  

(PHOTO: Colorhouse Paints)

A Few New Purchases: Any room could use a few new things.  It could be as simple as a lovely potted plant on your cocktail table to a super shaggy custom rug to take your formal living room from boring to spectacular.  Feel free to shop for a few new items, but only after your room has been re-styled. Consider the new items as the frosting, not the cake.

(PHOTO: Source)

Don't have the time or talent to do this yourself?  Good news, we can help.  We're interior arrangement experts, have fabulous ideas on how to give your old stuff a new life and don't even get me started on what we can find with our shopping skills!  Give me a jingle, send an email my way and let's talk.  We offer both on-location and e-makeover sessions.  Let's get your home refreshed, restyled and reinvented.  Biz phone: 708-448-7500 Email: Julea@Julea.com.

Oh... and those divots - Add crushed ice to the dent, let melt and then use an old hairbrush to re-fluff your carpet. Refluff again after drying.  Divots gone!

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More than a Home Stager... Why I call Myself an Interior Stylist

Fresh back from my speciality design training in Dallas, Texas (home staging training didn’t exist yet),  I landed my 1st client.  Recently moved into her new home, she was so excited to get it pulled together and make it hers. As we chatted about design ideas, she confided she partly hired me because she was hosting a baby shower and really want her home to look special.  Too, could I help her with ideas about the baby shower?  Instantly, part of this project was to advise which China to use, theme ideas and how to style the event.

The AHA Business Model Moment

That was my AHA business model moment. This new home design business I was launching was so much more than making a home pretty, my new job was to help a homeowner fully celebrate and embrace their home.

Not fitting into any box, I called myself 1st a Home Stylist, which was short lived being confused with a Hair Stylist that comes to a client's home!  A simple word swap of INTERIOR from HOME solved the identity problem and my business brand was born.

More than a Home Stager

Beyond a home stager's regular repertoire of just prepping a home for sale, I have for 17 years offered up a signature menu of interior stylist services that progressively celebrates their home. Once that house is SOLD,  there are a menu of design services to turn that NEW house into a home and celebrate the haven within.

•·        Color Consultation-  Already familiar with your things from your old home,  I am right by your side in expertly selecting and creating a new color palette.  From paint,  wallpaper to fabric selections,  gone are the old home owners hues, or those contractor white walls - in with color choices in-tune to your belongings and personal style.

•·        Interior Redesign-  I take what you have and make it all work within your new home.  In just a day or two,  your blank space becomes your space.  Interior Redesign is the art of arranging what you already have.  With specific steps and procedures, spaces become balanced, functional and unified. Best of all, you get instant gratification and validate your existing pieces.  This process then opens the door to new pieces and creative ideas to repurpose or refreshed what you have.  A very 21st century way of decorating a home.

•·     Shopping, Procurement & Traditional Design Services- If you'd like to refresh, add to your furniture & collections, we can help shop for those new pieces  Need more traditional design service such as custom window treatments, reupholstery services or help with choosing a new counter or embark in a remodeling project?  Our talents and resources can add those finishing touches and updates to your home.

•·     Lifestyle & Entertainment Services-  Your home is now ready to greet family and friends - from styling a home for a holiday or season, setting the stage for a party, or making a backyard patio a summer retreat.  - I help  my clients  celebrate the haven within.

4 Fall Re-Style Tips for HOME

Mornings are a bit cooler, the kids are back to school, and you look at your calendar and there are only 124 days till Christmas!  Summer takes its toll on your home interiors.  Perhaps you have piles of papers in the dining room, a spooky dust covered living room, and the family room’s pillows have been over loved by both the kids and your dog.

A fall home decorating refresher is the perfect remedy for your home’s style malaise.  It’s time to add a new furniture arrangement, an accessory shake-up, and some strategic power shopping to put a bit of zing into your home spaces.

So where to start? I offer 4 tips in this post to remedy your home’s neglected look. 

#1  Assess your Stuff.  Take a hard look at your stuff.  Move room to room and look at your furnishings, lamps, accessories and art.  Could some of these pieces be swapped to another room, be reinvented, repurposed or removed? 

• In our example, a large painting from the living room was swapped. The scale, colors and style looked great over the couch.

#2 A New Position. As the seasons change, so should your room's arrangements. Fireplaces in the summer - who cares; but as the cooler weather creeps in, you'll want to soon be curled up next to your fireplace with a cup of hot coffee and a cozy throw.  A mantle refresher will give new life to your fireplace and a new furniture arrangement will give you a fresh perspective and a new view whether your room's emphasis is a fireplace, TV or just to create a new seating for conversation.

• In our example, a new position for the chair, and an added ottoman from another room creates a new arrangement for the space. The brown ottoman pulls the color down from the paneled ceiling and provides a place to put up your feet.

#3 Tactile Textiles. Nothing give a space a new style than textiles. A pop of a new color in new drapery panels, pillows, or a throw will instantly up a room's WOW rating.

• In our example, we did some strategic power shopping at Tuesday Morning  and added colorful drapery panels and just in for fall, seasonal hued pillows to give the space an update.

#4 Accent with Accessories. Whether you shop your own home, or pick up something new, accessories will refine and finish a space.  

• In our example we added a new rug to add that cozy layer for cooler days.  The fun ombre indoor/outdoor rug  from RugStudio was selected on-line. The vintage vases, tray and books were shopped from other areas of the home, and finish the room's new look.

If you don’t have the time, talent or energy, our team at Reinventing Space will be happy to inject a bit of decorating Botox into your tired home with our FALL HOME MAKEOVER SPECIAL. Call 708-448-7500.